Technological advances in DNA sequencing are enabling new areas of genomic research allowing fine connections between genomic variants and phenotype. We are studying transcriptomes and genomes from a variety of eukaryotic and prokaryotic non model organisms and have contributed to gain biological insights. We have used the generalized Ruzzo-Tompa algorithm to find repeats in genomic sequences and made an implementation of the algorithm called RepWords. In another study related to the investigation of repeated sequences in genomes we tested the possibility that mammalian-wide interspersed repeats (MIRs) contribute functional enhancers to the human genome. We found that MIRs are highly concentrated in enhancers of the K562 and HeLa human cell-types and MIR-derived enhancers were found to be a rich source of transcription factor binding sites. Therefore, MIRs can exercise a regulatory function in the human genome and this study contributes to explain why their role as the most ancient family of transposable elements.